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Many recipes call for skinless, boneless chicken breast. If you've bought whole chicken breast (with bones) or you're sectioning a whole chicken, then there's a good chance that at some point you'll find yourself desiring to debone your chicken breasts for a recipe. Here's a step by step guide.

When working with a whole chicken, follow the Cutting Up Chicken instructions until you've removed the backbone.[IMG]

Instead of splitting the breast, we'll want to remove the keel bone first. To easily accomplish this, we'll first need to break the wishbone - the Y shaped bone at the head end of the breast. Position the breast such that the skin-side is down on the cutting board and the cartilage is pointing away from you. Using the heel/base of your knife (shown below) or the tip of your knife cut the wishbone so the Y is separated into two pieces.[IMG]

Next place short two diagonal cuts through the cartilage holding the tip of the keel bone in place - this should form a V shape.[IMG]

Turn the chicken around so the cartilage is pointing toward your body and dig your fingers into the area where you made the V shaped incision through the cartilage. Grab a hold of the keel bone and pull up and out.[IMG]

In most cases, the keel bone and the cartilage behind it will pull out of the chicken breast without a break. If this does not happen and the keel bone comes out without the cartilage, simply run your fingers under the cartilage to loosen it from the meat and then pull it out.[IMG]

Next, remove the rib bones. I find it easiest to do by lifting the ribs from the point furthest away from the wishbone and cutting it away from the breast with a boning knife. Using short swiping cuts while lifting the ribs away lets you remove the ribs quickly and without taking too much meat with them. When you have almost completely removed the ribs, you'll get to the wishbone. Simply trim around the wishbone until it too has been removed from the breast. After repeating this operation on the other set of ribs, your chicken brest is boneless.[IMG]

The breast halves should each have a flap of meat called the chicken tenderloin (or chicken tenders or strips). Lifting the tenderloin should reveal a white tendon. I recommend two ways to trim off this tough tendon. The most popular method is to grab the tendon with your fingers and pull on it while scraping with your knife to release the tendon from the breast. Continue to lift and scrape until the tendon is completely removed. Alternatively, you can use a sharp boning knife and slice along both sides of the tendon (without slicing through the tendon). Then lift any part of the tendon that has been separated from the breast and use your boning knife the cut any parts where the tendon has not cleanly separated from the meat.[IMG]

Repeat with the other breast. If you choose to, remove the skin at any convenient time (after removing the backbone or after boning has been completed or anytime in between).[IMG]

On two occasions I have made Paul Prudhomme's Turducken from scratch. This is a deboned chicken, stuffed with andouille dressing, inside of a deboned duck, stuffed with cornbread dressing, inside of a deboned turkey, stuffed with oyster dressing.

To debone the birds, you cut them down the back and chase the meat off the bone following the rib cage. You cut around the leg joints and chase the meat off the leg bones.

The result looks like a big fat turkey. When you slice through, you get each of the three birds and the three dressings.

Not yet. I've thought about it in the past but never thoguht it worth the time - it might be an interesting though and if there are a bunch of readers, then it'll be worth the effort and time. I suppose I'll just buy (at non-sale prices so I get somewhat accurate relative prices for each part) whole, sectioned, and sectioned and boned chickens and then weigh each one and then section and bone the whole chicken and bone the sectioned chicken and weight the parts and calculate price per edible portion. I think the differing sizes of chickens (whole compared to breasts from a bird bred for breasts, etc.) should net out since it's representative of what you'd actually buy from the store. What do you think?

In My Area, Syracuse, NY. the cost of on the bone chicken and boneless chicken is almost the same. My weight comparisons have almost always been that a bone in chicken breast weighs twice as much as a boneless chicken breast. Of course when I bone my own, I get much better Fillets.

whole, sectioned, and sectioned and boned chickens and then weigh each one and then section and bone the whole chicken

It seems to me that the greatest value would be get chickens in a range of sizes (three perhaps? small, medium, and large?) and bone them. You could then report the ration of purchase weight and meat weight. Do the same for a couple of sectioned bits.

That makes the evaluation price independent and people can use the ratios (assuming we are all equally proficient at boning <grin>) to compare prices in the store. It is then up to each of us to decide what our time is worth, and the value of the bones and other leavings for making stocks and soups.

Thanks for the photos and instructions. They are very clear and informative. My family members does not eat chicken breast. After cooking a chicken, we usually give away all the breast parts to a neighbour who like it.